


In Equal Measure

by jackmaybenimble



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-01-09
Updated: 2006-01-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 09:01:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20963939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackmaybenimble/pseuds/jackmaybenimble
Summary: They have begun too many times.





	In Equal Measure

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers up to and including Season 4 Debate Camp, the first half is set right on the tail end of the Season Three finale, Posse Comitatus.

Arms wrapped tight around her legs, chin digging into her knees. Limbs stiff from sitting still so long, but she doesn't realize until she moves to answer the knock at the door. Unsure which of them it would be, if indeed it would only be one, she knew at least one of them would come.

Him.

She pulls him into the apartment, his body heavy but compliant as she tugs his jacket off, pushing him towards the couch. He doesn't lift his head from his hands when she holds out the glass to him so she sits beside him, taking his hand, wrapping it around the glass. Hand shaking slightly as he raises it to his lips, the first mouthful makes him wince as he swallows, his throat dry. The second mouthful goes down easier as he stares into the depths of the glass.

"Where is she?"

"Abbey has her." Eyes averted, she can not read him.

Her warmth begins to seep into him through the hand on his arm.

"She....They were..." He stops and drains the glass.

She takes it from him easily, his hand looser now, hands the refill back. "I know. She told me..well she thought.."

"When"

"Few days ago."

She reaches for his glass, a small smile escaping that he permits her a mouthful. He drains the glass before she can make a habit of it. His turn to smile as she refills it again.

She leans back, curling her not inconsiderable length of leg under her.

Unusually for them the silence is comfortable.

He leans back and winces as the bow tie restricts him. Fumbling, he tries unsuccessfully to find the catch, but her long, slim fingers are better than his. She releases it and the collar button.

Its as natural as breathing as he turns his head and softly kisses her. Strange and yet familiar, and her taste mixed with scotch inside her mouth is new to him. He cups her cheek, strokes pale skin. They draw breath, its warmth tangling over their lips still touching. She knows he's becoming lost. She slips her fingers into the curls at the nape of his neck and her tongue into his mouth and falls with him.

He has come to her many times since then, want and need in equal measure and both sit uneasily with him, as he assumes they do with her, though she has yet to turn him away. Even on the nights when he's slipped in beside her, waking her with his cold hands and warm tongue she willingly accepts him in her bed and in her body.

They've done this before, crashing together. After Rosslyn, the MS announcement, CJ and Haiti. When he cannot mend the breaks in his friends, he digs deeper into the break in his heart.

He couldn't bring Simon back, anymore than he could heal CJ's pain so once more he returned to Andy.

History repeating itself, with neither learning from the past.

And now the future lies with these tiny souls they have created. Forged in lust and loss he wonders when love will figure.


End file.
